Saturday, May 23, 2009

Facebook "Friends" Fail - Somewhere Someone Is Working On Facebook's UX by John McElhenney

But where that person's efforts are going is probably the ADs. (I'm not saying the ADs are good, I'm just saying they are not working on the UX and UI of Facebook.) Because they keep making changes to things that WERE previously working and they mess it up. [And of course the ultimate irony, is I am going to post and promote this on Facebook itself. Betcha $100 I don't hear a word from any of Zuckerburgs folks. I didn't last time... Heh heh. Perhaps they're working on it and don't want to tip their hand. Perhaps!]

The biggest MISS for me lately has been the "friends" status views. How do you get back to seeing the updates and not the "what they updated?" Okay, so Facebook has added Lists. Great, but they suck. Here is my view of my "close"list. Why oh why aren't they showing me the latest status update from my "close" friends?

A friend recently opined, "It's clear that the people work ON Facebook don't actually USE Facebook or they would not make such stupid changes." Well put.

Okay and here's All Friends. Same problem. I am clicking on "FRIENDS" to see their status, not to see if or how many lists they are part of. This is just BAD BAD BAD. UX FAIL.

But still the #1 UX FAIL on Facebook today is,

... drum roll from wipeout please ...

The "Recently Updated" Friends Status page and guess what. Not a single STATUS is available.

You can see what parts of FB they updated but not the updates. It's this kind of shoddy UI and UX that makes me less and less likely to open Facebook at all. With recent API loving twittertools like Seesmic Desktop, Twirl and Tweetdeck, you may never have to open your Facebook page again. Unless of course you like the games or you want to browse someone's photos.

Does this kind of BAD DESIGN make anyone else MAD? It's like following a HUMMER in rush hour traffic. WHAT'S THE POINT! #@!&*?